GANG – Eye Garden

Gang. These dudes are quickly becoming one of Brighton’s favourites and even the rugged, struggling arms of this city are having a tough time to keep them for their own. Nope, Gang are spreading far and wide, heading to the Big Smoke frequently, playing across a vast spectrum of festivals this Summer including Blissfields and Forgotten Fields and up to the beautiful Norf on occasion. To be honest though, when you dig down to the nitty fucking gritty, it’s completely plausible to see why.

‘Eye Garden’ is anthemic in every truth of the term. It’s no lie. It’s no bullshit. It’s gigantic, from the brief opening guitar hum to the haunting, creeping and menacing verse which leaves singer, Jimi, utter through subtle whispers ‘Falling in / To a cloud-covered slime that floats behind my eyes / And every single night I am crawling cold’. Eventually all this trauma concludes with the cathartic eclipse that is the chorus, ‘Waiting to dive / Out of my mind’, the brothers team up in fantastic vocal unison, luring you through in a Pixies-esque style. Gang vary style, there’s the sludge, doom and psychedelia side but what can be seen with ‘Eye Garden’ is there is a whole other side to them, there’s a pop-sensibility tucked away somewhere in the murk that allows them to write with such catch and hook.

‘Eye Garden’ isn’t one for the faint hearted. It’s tortured, sinister, fuzzy and ominous. You don’t know which way it is going to turn but one thing it definitely can be as well as all this is alluring. There’s something about the enigma that draws you in, it leaves you hooked and vulnerable. Clearly Gang are having this impact on a much larger scale. Here’s to the future for them.